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SMITH ON SOCCER: You poor little things ... but just get used to it
IT'S taken numerous financial meltdowns, administration orders and points deductions, but football has finally got the the monetary message.
The 'untouchables' of the Premiership top six can support debts as big as the GDP of medium-sized countries with their income and assets.
Europe's major clubs blasted into another stratosphere with the 80 million transfer or Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United to Real Madrid.
Unbelievable, impossible numbers that only rub the noses of the average football club in the mess of their own monetary mediocrity.
Everyone but the big boys drops down two divisions in the transfer table when that kind of money changes hands.
And with the Manchesters United and City sitting on 100m each, you can bet there's going to be more of it.
For the rest, it's economies, down-sizing, synergies, rationalisation and blah bla blah accountant speak for 'no money to spend'.
Locally, our big clubs got the message some time ago, but fans are only just beginning to grasp their situation.
They're actually starting to understand that there's no alternative to the rock of Sheffield Wednesday's financial quest and the hard place of United's fiscal fidelity. One false move and they're doomed - or Leeds United, which is pretty much the same thing.
The new generation of football finance managers can't cut fast and loose with the bank's or the chairman's money any more - because there isn't any.
Boardroom impatience or the tyrannical ambition of supporters can no longer push clubs to take risks.
When did we last see such detailed and open accounts of our clubs' financial positions as we have had in The Star this week courtesy of Jason Rockett and Nick Parker? Credit to Wednesday and United for laying their cards on the table - although we don't know much more about who might be playing for the teams next season, we do know where the clubs stand.
Old-fashioned talent-spotting and team-building are the way forward now; the quick-fix cheques ran out with Luton Shelton and David Graham.
But patience doesn't come easy to clubs and fans used to instant credit, blas banks and never-never loans.
It's going to be a long summer, lads.
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
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